THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
BLACK LACQUER JEWELED HELMET OF THE EMPEROR KIENLUNG
1905, but now, having been completely
rebuilt, is practically .the same thing of
joy to the eye as when Kienlung first
surveyed the completed palace.
All now is new, clean, and perfect,
from the first red-latticed doors and
rainbow beams under bracketed eaves to
the last roof of shimmering yellow tiles,
with scaly dragons coiled like rampant
shrimps on the ridge pole, and dogs and
lions parading down every angle to keep
away evil spirits.
Wind bells of gilded copper swing
from every angle of the tip-tilted roofs,
and the restoration has been faithful.
and exact. In the side court, the two
story pavilion of the empress, the eu
nuchs' quarters, and a little study or
library with quaintly gabled end walls,
all glow with new tiles, latticings, fresh
gilding, vermilion, and polychrome deco
rations on the broad beams and rafter
tips. There are a few ceilings with
square sunken panels, where golden
dragons grin in coils, but others, like the
audience hall, have timbered roofs, the
rows of slender red ribs of rafters de
fined against a flat gold ceiling-a direct
suggestion of the primitive lodge poles
of their tented ancestors. Some won-
derful old panels of glazed pottery with
dragons and devices in high relief have
been reset in walls and screens, and used
in ornamental constructions in these
courts.
The great imperial library of more
than 6,000 cases of volumes, deposited
by the Emperor Kienlung, is a duplicate
of those also deposited at Peking and
at Golden Island monastery, on the
Yangtse.
THE MOST MARVELOUS COLLECTION OF
PORCELAIN IN THE WORLD
The palace storehouses contain more
than one hundred thousand pieces of
porcelain of the best period of the impe
rial potteries at King-te-Ching. Tens of
thousands of pieces of porcelain were
sent up to the Peking palace every year,
and the supply for Mukden was in pro
portion. The eastern storehouse, the
Fei Lung Ko, where the thousands of
vases, plates, bowls, and cups were kept,
had so very nearly sagged to the ground
by 1905 that it had to be completely re
built.
All this ceramic treasure was taken to
the audience hall, where it covered the
floor, the dais, and even the imperial
310